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In Search of a ‘Decider’…

In an interview with German television, Bush said: “I very much would like to end Guantanamo; I very much would like to get people to a court. And we’re waiting for our Supreme Court to give us a decision as to whether the people need to have a fair trial in a civilian court or in a military court.”

Oh really? As the editorial points out:

From his seemingly respectful reference to the court, one wouldn’t guess that the Bush administration resisted any review by the Supreme Court of its handling of Guantanamo detainees, arguing unsuccessfully in 2004 that federal courts lacked jurisdiction.

And from our own Steven Shapiro…

Conversely, as ACLU Legal Director Steven R. Shapiro pointed out Monday, the president does not need Supreme Court approval to shut down Guantanamo or to give its inmates a fair trial. To use a term familiar to the president, he, not the court, is the “decider” when it comes to prolonging the detention of all those at Guantanamo.

It looks like the “decider” has been busy at work keeping us safe while trouncing our privacy again.

CNN reports that the NSA has been building a super-database of every call made within the country. They’re not recording the calls, but having the phone companies hand over every outgoing call from every number dialed.

Qwest is the only company not to comply, on grounds of privacy and questionable legality.

The rationale is, of course, to keep us safe by looking for patterns of terrorist use.

How long will people stand by and let the government remove our privacy in the name of “freedom” before they do something about it?

I’m so tired of the the government saying “it’s for your own good” and having people say “oh, it’s ok, we don’t need those pesky civil rights anyway.”